New Gaming Build

[InFeXiOn]

Alright folks, been out of the loop for about a good year now and am considering the build of a brand new PC to gear up for DX10 enabled games on the horizon, who am I kidding, my lust for just wanting a new toy.

I'll be ordering my parts from www.NCIX.com - it's a Canadian retailer that is pretty fair on their prices and I've had friends that have had nothing but good things to say about them thus far.

My proposed budget is anywhere from $2000-2500 I would estimate. I've spent some time browsing around and configuring a setup of my own, but I'm looking for the BEST possible performance here that I can get for my dollar.

Basic run-down of things I'm hoping for:

Q6600 (or E6850 - priced about the same)
4GB RAM
At least one Raptor/high-speed drive.
One storage drive.
DVD-Writer.
8800GTX or dual 8800GTS - one or the other.
A quality, large, attractive case (Lian Li, Armour, ect?)

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Paul

 

[bamacre]

Get the Q6600 over the E6850. I think the Raptor is a waste, but it doesn't look like its price tag is financially taking away from your other parts. Single 8800 GTX, and go P35 for the motherboard.

 

[InFeXiOn]

After wandering into the video card section of the forums I noticed a new card on the horizon and potential price-cuts. Is it worth waiting?

Apparently, the 8800 GT is out-performing the GTX and is half the price. Uh-oh.

Also, P35? Wish I had a clue what that was. I'll have to look into it.

Thanks for the input, none the less.

 

[bamacre]

P35 is a newer Intel chipset replacing the 965P.

 

[InFeXiOn]

Found the boards that I'm choosing from now.

Also considering a water-cooling setup if it fits reasonably into the budget. Still deciding if I should pull the trigger or not with the 8800GT so close from what I've seen in the video card section of the boards. They just HAD to go and freak me out. -_-'

 

[InFeXiOn]

Bump. Still looking for opinions.

 

[Hampster Dance]

Definitely wait. I am not a big proponent of waiting for releases because you'll always end up waiting, but you'll be better off waiting to see if the new releases live up to the hype. Prices can only go down!

 

[coldmeat]

my best suggestion is to check out directcanada.com, they usually have better prices than ncix, and free shipping